Super Charge your workout through Physical Praise & Worship

There is a WAR RAGING right now! I’m not talking about the military battles being fought in foreign lands but rather the battle being waged right here on domestic soil. The war that is killing 1 in 5 Americans DAILY! The war that is causing a pandemic of biblical proportions! The war that is decimating the health and wealth of our nation. The adversary we as a people currently face may be more devastating than we could have ever imagined! This new enemy is OBESITY and all the array of disease and devastation that accompanies it!

Our food environment has become toxic and confusing as it has grown plentiful. The food we consume on a regular basis is full of calories but low in nutritional content causing us to over indulge. The jobs & technology we depend on allows for considerable less physical activity causing us to become sedentary and allowing the accumulation of soft, inactive fat cells to dominate our bodies. This is a recipe for disaster. For the first time in human history children are expected to LIVE SICKER & DIE YOUNGER than their parents.

All is not lost! In order to regain our health and wellness we must reframe the way we look at fitness. We must all remember that Gods greatest gift to each of us is our HEALTHY TEMPLES. God made us PERFECT in His image and has given us everything we need to be Good Stewards over our greatest gift!

It would be considered blasphemy if someone vandalized a church or temple yet we vandalize our bodies, the true Temple of God, routinely! If we are to truly please God and receive in His abundance of health, wealth, and spiritual blessings we must edify Him in everything we do and with every opportunity we get, including our fitness!

Begin to look at working out as your PHYSICAL PRAISE & WORSHIP! Workout all your stress & frustration through the building and maintaining of your Temple. Ask God to anoint your workout and empower you to remain consistent and dedicated to your glorification of Him. Recruit other members of your natural and church family to join your “praise party” and physically praise and worship together while you fight obesity, minimize disease, build strength, reverse aging, create a stronger fellowship and extend the length & quality of your life.

Use these key biblical verses as inspiration & motivation as you embark on your new Fitness Ministry. God wants you to be healthy and strong so you can be of great service to his Kingdom. Will you give God an opportunity to Bless your life through PHYSICAL PRAISE & WORSHIP? (All verses are from the NIV84 unless indicated otherwise.)

Edify your BODY & SOUL:

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 1:2).

“The LORD will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring” (Isaiah 58:11, NLT).

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life” (Matthew 6:25-27).

“The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness” (Psalm 24:1, NKJV).

“But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way… ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food” (Daniel 1:8, 12,13,15).

“Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, NLT).

“‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but I will not be mastered by anything… Therefore, Honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:12, 20b).

“The road to life is a disciplined life; ignore correction and you’re lost for good” (Proverbs 10:17, MSG).

“He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment” (Proverbs 12:11).

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).

“Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk; don’t eat too much food and get fat. Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags” (Proverbs 23:20-21, MSG).

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat” (Matthew 5:6, MSG).

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8, MSG).

Jay Jones is a Fitness Minister & Certified Peak Performance Coach whose motto is "A mental transformation leads to a conscious restoration and finally a physical activation of your most successful self."
Jay puts this philosophy to practice everyday as Inspiration and Owner of Jay Jones INI (Inspiration Not Intimidation) Peak Performance Coaching.
Jay is an all-around athlete and was a standout football player at the quarterback position until his career was cut short by a broken neck.
The subsequent physical rehabilitation as well as the mental and spiritual awakening a "near death" experience often creates... inspired Jay Jones to utilize his unique gifts to build healthier bodies and minds for people across the world.

The Journey of ‘BETTER’

We all desire to have something better—better health, better car, better life for our children, or a better life for ourselves. It is a desire we all share. It wakes us up in the morning, and, for many of us, it is something we think about before going to bed. Our desire to have better or do better is sometimes met with a few roadblocks. We can either feel like we don’t deserve better or that there is no way better would ever come into our lives. Some of us may feel lost as to where to start in our journey or confused when things don’t go the way they should.

Be encouraged to begin your journey of better at the end of your comfort zone. Yes, you read that correctly. Begin where your comfort zone ends. Your ability to do and have better is predicated on your willingness to mature beyond your desire to quit.

When I started working out, I wanted to give up so many times. It was my desire to stop altogether; however, I knew I had to train beyond my level of comfort. That was the only way I was going to grow. When I’m lying on my back underneath the weights, I have no other choice but press beyond my desire to stop and rack the weights. I can sense my muscles failing, but I know it’s the extra reps when I’m most tired that makes all the difference. If I refuse to start where my comfort zone ends, then I will remain stagnant—trapped in a level of comfort that I truly want to escape.

You may desire to be better in your career; with your health; in your marriage. If so, go the extra mile; find out what stretches you and take the challenge. That could be reading a book about a subject you’re wanting to grow in, taking a foreign language course you’ve always wanted to learn, or finally investing in a trainer to help you meet your goals. You will never know how much you can do and how far you can go until you’re willing to stay on the journey of better even when it feels like you want to quit. You have to just keep going. You could be saying, “I understand what you’re saying, but what if I start on this journey and I fail!” Well, I believe failure is in the refusal to move, not the willingness and get up and try. And allow me to reverse the question; “What if you succeed?” You’ll never know until you try. Get on the journey and stay committed to the process.

Running to Win with The Fit Pastor – Cornelius Lindsey

Apostle Paul illustrates spiritual discipline by mentioning physical discipline in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. It reads “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

Apostle Paul’s words are convicting and very important for every Christian to understand. He uses this athletic analogy to illustrate the importance of spiritual discipline while not neglecting physical discipline. He uses one to illustrate the importance of the other. Notice that he mentions disciplining his body so that it serves him, not the other way around. Apostle Paul also mentions physical training in 1 Timothy 4:8, which reads “For bodily exercise is only of little profit but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and all for the life to come.” Notice that he does not dismiss the importance of physical training. He prioritizes physical exercise by showing that godliness is of greater value. I like to tell people that physical exercise is not everything, but it is something. And it is important.

There is nothing wrong with physical training as long as the Christian does not make it more important than godliness. In fact, we should see our need to be physically fit as important.

I like to correlate my physical fitness with my faith. I train hard physically so I can have the energy to practice my faith through going wherever God leads me without physical restrictions. Jesus and the disciples walked for miles and miles. They had to have the physical stamina and proper healthy eating habits to endure long journeys. The Apostle Paul endured very hard journeys, and I am sure his physical well-being had something to do with him being sustained on his journey. We read in the Gospel that Jesus left Jerusalem for Galilee. That is a little over 116 miles! I dare to ask if many preachers could walk that today.

It is no secret that our foods are mostly processed, packed full of sugar, and very salty. Unfortunately, many of the unhealthiest people in our community are church-going, Bible-carrying believers. That should not be. Fasting, which is a staple in our faith, is met with much disapproval in our day because resisting food is difficult. This is because our foods are like drugs. They are addicting and cancerous; yet, many still eat them joyfully. How can we refer to ourselves as disciples if we are not disciplined? We should lead the way in a healthy lifestyle that promotes proper nutrition and an active lifestyle with some kind of exercise. We were not called to be sedentary. We must discipline our flesh so that our stomach is not our god. How can we properly say that we can resist the devil if we cannot resist a box of donuts?

Let’s consider our health and physical well-being. God has given us our bodies, so be a must be proper stewards over them. We can do that by watching what we consume and staying active. If we don’t discipline our flesh, it will discipline us!

Disconnect in order to Reconnect: How to live in a Hi-Tech, Low-Touch World

It’s not easy using our bodies the way God designed them because more and more of the world is not the way God designed it. Urban sprawl and new technological advances have literally transformed the way the earth looks and the way we interact with it. The further and further away we get from using the planet the way it was designed to be used the closer and closer we get to not being able to use our bodies the way they were designed to be used.

God created us to move and be engaged in the world. He didn’t create us to become slaves to our own creations and abandon the activities that edify our temples for the sake of convenience. In today’s society we have reduced our physical interaction with the world to as little as possible. Our incidental fitness opportunities diminish with
each new gadget or gizmo that hits the market with the intention of “saving time & energy”. Office worker no longer visit each others desk for information or conversation, they email or text. We very seldom take stairs anymore if elevators or escalators are close by. We drive everywhere, even if walking is a feasible option.

The most effective way to reconnect to your natural self is to disconnect from the artificial technology and begin to interact with the physical world around you once again. When I was a kid it was a form of punishment if I wasn’t able to go outside and play! For the modern child, the exact opposite is the case, going outside to play and socialize with friends is a form of punishment when all they want to do is stay inside and watch tv, play video games, or surf the net.

Start to incorporate more outside time into your daily routine. A simple walk around the block, park, or office complex can not only reduce stress but also create a clear mental environment where creativity and imagination can flourish to solve problems and create solutions to pressing issues. Fuel your body with proper nutrition and develop fitness into a habit, not a hobby, and watch God add a Supernatural Blessing to your natural efforts. Rediscover the beauty, magnificence, and healing properties of reconnecting with nature and watch your mind, body and soul respond in a most beautiful way!